Battery design determines which hardware products can exist. When a conventional cell sets the minimum thickness, operating temperature or shape of a device, it also limits what product teams can build.
BTRY is approaching that constraint through an ultra-thin, foldable solid-state battery designed to function as an integrated layer. Founded in 2023 as an Empa and ETH Zürich spin-off, the Swiss startup is targeting smaller applications overlooked by an industry focused heavily on EV packs and grid storage.
The opportunity includes smart labels, industrial sensors, wearables and medical devices. Across these categories, the decisive improvement may come from fitting power into the product’s intended design rather than adding more capacity.
Mohamed Foulser of Redstone captures that shift with one question: “What product can I build with a battery that is adjustable to my design?”
Start where the battery blocks the product
BTRY’s first focus is smart tracking labels and embedded devices. Similar in purpose to an AirTag but designed for use in a simple label format, these products need a battery thin enough to become part of the label itself.
CEO and Co-Founder Moritz H. Futscher explains that BTRY is building “a new category of batteries” for applications that conventional formats cannot serve.
Smart labels provide a defined customer problem and a practical route into production. From there, the technology could expand into wearables, medical devices and industrial sensors.
That sequencing matters. A technology may support dozens of future applications, but the first market must offer:
A constraint customers already feel, such as thickness, heat or rigidity
A product conventional batteries cannot support without compromising its design
A credible route to production before expansion into broader categories
The strongest entry point is not necessarily the largest market. It is the use case where the new technology is most difficult to replace.
Manufacturing is part of the breakthrough
BTRY’s technical approach draws on manufacturing processes already used in flexible solar cells and semiconductor production. The team has produced across five machines, testing different systems with equipment and manufacturing partners before committing to major purchases.
As Michael Brehm of Redstone explains, “technical feasibility and production at scale are two completely different things.”
Moritz describes the first laboratory result as a starting point. Since founding the company, the team has spent much of its time learning how to industrialise the technology: running equipment directly, validating processes with customers and working alongside partners on site.
This offers a practical test for deep tech companies. Before investing heavily in their own production capacity, founders need evidence that the process works beyond their laboratory, transfers across equipment and produces something customers can integrate.
Scientific novelty creates the possibility. Manufacturing discipline creates the company.
Europe can compete through category design
BTRY is not attempting to challenge established manufacturers in conventional lithium-ion batteries. Its strategy is to serve applications where thinness, flexibility, temperature stability and integration change the product itself.
That distinction gives European hardware companies a more credible competitive path.
They do not need to reproduce every advantage of the existing battery supply chain. They can combine Europe’s expertise in flexible electronics, advanced manufacturing and industrial partnerships around product categories that incumbents were not built to serve.
The opportunity still depends on execution. Production must become repeatable, supply chains must remain resilient and customers must prove that these new form factors solve valuable problems.
Michael’s longer-term vision is that hardware companies “will just actually make the battery disappear” and focus on functionality instead.
For founders, investors and corporate product teams, the useful next step is to examine the concepts currently sitting outside the roadmap: which products remain impossible because the battery still controls their design?
Listen to the full conversation to assess where a different battery form factor could create the next hardware category.
